It’s hard not to love that “liberal” media.On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the three-hour program co-hosted by a conservative Republican former congressman, Time magazine’s Mark Halperin was asked for his assessment of President Obama’s White House press conference. “I thought he was kind of a dick yesterday,” Halperin said.

If you can watch the video, note how Halperin, ostensibly one of the nation’s most influential pundits, was smiling, with a smug satisfaction. It wasn’t a word he just blurted out in the heat of a larger discussion — Halperin thought about it, asked about whether the broadcast was on a seven-second delay, and then took his shot.

Not to be left out, Politico gives us this one. Notice how quickly the ‘real’ press is running for the door.

Time issued a statement later Thursday calling Halperin’s comments “inappropriate and in no way reflective of TIME’s views.”

The magazine did not suspend Halperin but said, “We have issued a warning to him that such behavior is unacceptable” and noted that he had “appropriately” apologized.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday afternoon that he called Halperin’s bosses at MSNBC.

“The comment that was made was inappropriate,” Carney told reporters in his daily briefing. “It would be inappropriate to say that about either president of either party.”

During the Morning Joe show, host Joe Scarborough asked Halperin what he thought of Obama’s press conference and Halperin asked if the seven-second delay were in effect so he could give his real opinion – apparently thinking it would be bleeped out before hitting the air. Scarborough told Halperin to go for it because they would use the delay to prevent whatever he said from being broadcast. “You fall down, I’m going to catch you,” Scarborough told Halperin.

I’m sorry, but this is crazy. Halperin’s crack was crude and dumb, but it doesn’t deserve indefinite suspension. Halperin’s use of an expletive is trival when compared with the degradation of our political discourse we witness on a regular basis from Halperin and many others — degradation that is seen as perfectly acceptable because no curse words are employed. Suspending Halperin only reinforces a phony definition of “civility” in our discourse, in which it’s unacceptable to use foul language and be “uncivil,” but it’s perfectly acceptable for reporters and commentators to allow outright falsehoods to pass unrebutted; to traffic endlessly in false equivalences in the name of some bogus notion of objectivity; and to make confident assertions about public opinion without referring to polls which show them to be completely wrong.

This is a great excuse for MSNBC to fire Halperin, though! I mean if they won’t fire him for being incompetent at understanding and explaining politics they now have an opportunity to fire him for being disrespectful and vulgar. (Ed Schultz was suspended over as much.)

Being a professional observer of the “horse race” is bad enough, but Halperin doesn’t even understand the horse-race element of politics. He fails at being a hack. He’s too dumb to correctly parrot conventional wisdom. He is pretty sure Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are 2012 front-runners. He thought “suspending his campaign” to fix the economy and not knowing how many houses he has were both huge messaging victories for John McCain. He wrote a book about how to win in 2008 that predicted everything Hillary did, but in his world it all worked. He thought Bush’s political comeback would come any day now throughout the entirety of the years 2006-2008. He can’t interpret polls or see through the spin of GOP consultants who are much smarter than he. If I were revising the Hack list I’d put him above No. 1.

So this indefinite suspension is a nice first step, but I bet it won’t be long before they allow him to come crawling back into Mika and Joe’s little parlor of inanity. (And will Joe get in trouble for egging him on? Does Joe get in trouble for anything?)

So, is this a case of it takes one to know one? Go check out the huge list of reactions via memeorandum. See the Village. See the Village Gasp. See the Village react in a predictably partisan pattern.

ROFLOL! Halperin is a moron. I agree that it gave MSNBC an excuse to fire him. Next they need to get rid of Pat Buchanan, Joe Scarborough, Andrea Mitchell, and Zbignew’s daughter–can’t her name right now. They’re all dicks.

Oh, I wish I’d seen this live and caught the reactions. The clip is good because for Halperin this was obviously premeditated. But did Mika clutch her pearls and get all whoozy?? And how did this get on the air if they do, indeed, have a 7-second delay? Is the Joe Show outsourcing producer duties??? Inquiring minds want to know :0).

What a circus. And why was POTUS a dick? Because he wrinkled his brow and wagged his finger at the Republicans for being the BS obstructionists they are? How disgraceful!

Just another moment of nonjournalism on parade. Thanks for the clip, Dak. Obviously, they need to take Halperin out, put him against a wall and shoot him. Capitol offense to use the word ‘dick’ and Obama in the same sentence. Then shoot him again for being just one more talking head with nothing to say.

Thanks for that, Beata. Who knew that it would be Joe S. who’d get the vapors. His mom is watching?? Oh, Lordie! Scarborough needs to get a new staff if they can’t figure out how that delay works. After the feigned shock and giggles, Mika went into instant defensive mode.

Taylor Marsh had some interesting comments about Obama’s performance–how it’s a tad late in the day to express the Democratic framing after 2+ years of caving to all the GOP’s demands. I think the Republicans are dead wrong and will take us over the cliff, but they’ve been masterful in getting their message out. And selling it like snake oil.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has signaled to White House officials that he’s considering leaving the administration after President Barack Obama reaches an agreement with Congress to raise the national debt limit, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Geithner hasn’t made a final decision and won’t do so until the debt ceiling issue has been resolved, according to one of the people. All spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about private discussions.

The Treasury secretary has said the U.S. risks defaulting on its obligations if Congress doesn’t raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by Aug. 2. The administration and congressional Republicans are at an impasse in negotiations to raise the limit, which also is tied to efforts to cut the nation’s long- term deficit.

Moody’s Investors Service said on June 2 it expects to place the U.S. government’s Aaa credit rating under review for a possible downgrade if there’s no progress on the debt limit by mid-July. Fitch Ratings said June 21 it would place the U.S. on a negative rating watch if no action is taken by Aug. 2.

If you the thing with Obama. It went down hill when Chuck Todd asked a multi-subject question. Obama wasn’t in the mood, there was nothing to report and the White House forgot to leave cookies in the lobby. Everybody’s cranky. The congress is cancelling vaca and nobody can go to the shore next week on their expense account. You’d be a dick too.

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